Group Holding Out Hope For World`s Fair Coalition

December 09, 1985|By John McCarron, Urban affairs writer.

The private group still pushing for a world`s fair in Chicago has told the international sanctioning agency in Paris that a chance remains that a public-private coalition can be formed to revive planning for the all-but-dead 1992 exposition.

After the group`s presentation last week, delegates to the Bureau of International Expositions (BIE) let stand the world`s fair certification they granted Chicago three years ago.

But Chicago promoters of the fair predicted that the bureau would withdraw approval at its next meeting in June unless progress is made.

If certification is withdrawn, sources said, the international agency would have to decide whether to let Seville, Spain, which was to celebrate the 1992 fair with Chicago, go it alone. The BIE might instead permit Seville`s celebration to coincide with one in Genoa, Italy, whose organizers applied Thursday for bureau approval.

The Chicago situation was explained to BIE delegates by an officer of the Chicago World`s Fair 1992 Corp., the group of corporate leaders who began planning for the fair six years ago. In June, the Illinois legislature dismantled the state authority that was to plan and operate the fair, but the private group still holds U.S. and international certifications.

Called late last week in Paris, the Chicago representative recounted the presentation to the BIE.

``We told them we expected ups and downs and that this was a `down`

period,`` said the official, who asked not to be identified.

BIE delegates were told about the legislature`s action and about Mayor Harold Washington`s more recent admonition against private efforts to revive the enterprise.

``We told them there is a possibility that a new coalition could be formed,`` he said. ``But if it were revived, it would have to be financed with (private) licensing and sponsorship revenues, not taxes.``